Why would anyone outside of America care about Thanksgiving?

I'm not American and I don't live in America so Thanksgiving Day means NOTHING to me - a big fat ZERO!!!

Right?

Wrong!

I love Thanksgiving.

I applaud the Americans - and the Canadians and everyone else who celebrates Thanksgiving - for creating this VERY special day. I can't think of anything better to celebrate, than giving thanks.

When I checked my inbox this morning it was full to the brim with Thanksgiving Day related mails, but there was one message that really struck a chord.

It wasn't from a friend, or anyone I knew personally. It was from a health related website called mercola.com.

The message was from Dr. Mercola himself. It read:

"Be thankful for what you have. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, remember the 1,000 reasons you have to smile. Face your past without regret; prepare for the future without fear; focus on what's good right now, in the present moment, and practice gratitude."

Over the last few years I might have had a few reasons to cry, but over the last decade I've had thousands upon thousands of reasons to smile.

I have a beautiful wife who is also my best friend, and two wonderful children, and some amazing friends and family, and heck, I'm still waking up every morning, which has got to be good.

But there's more. So much more.

Thanks to my business, over the last decade I've had the chance to work with so many talented people from programmers, designers, and writers, and the awesome people who have provided technical support, manned the offices, handled the paperwork, and kept me filled with coffee on those nights where I burned the candle at both ends.

But there is one more thing.

• Something VERY important.
• Something I am eternally grateful for.
• That something is YOU!

I send my thanks to everyone who has been part of the Intellimon community. Whether as a user of XSitePro, XHeader or XCommentPro, one of the many training courses we've released, or maybe you've just been on our mailing list and received updates over the years.

You have provided me with the chance to be passionate about everything from software development through to Internet marketing, writing and online business in general.

You've provided me with a reason to jump out of bed each morning to work on a huge range of exciting projects.

Your feedback, good and bad, has helped us to make huge strides forward, and your kind words have provided a much needed motivational boost when such a boost has been sorely needed.

On the 27th November 2013 - a year ago today - I made a post about the future of XSitePro. At that time I was feeling at a very low ebb. I'm pleased to say I'm now feeling a lot better than I did, and hopefully am now on the road to making a full recovery. For that I am so thankful, and I put a lot of that down to the positive messages you sent at the time and for all the wonderful advice that came flooding in - so much of which I've been following over this last year.

Dr. Mercola said ’remember the 1,000 reasons you have to smile. I don't have 1,000 I have thousands - and each and every one of them is incredibly special.

He ended by reminding us to live in the present moment and to practice gratitude. After the last ten years I know exactly what he means.

As for ’preparing for the future without fear’ I must say that having the Closing Down Sale for Intellimon has been one of the hardest things I've had to do, but now that it is almost over (it ends tomorrow) I am excited about the future and grateful for the chance to hopefully benefit people in other ways.

I hope that Dr. Mercola's words resonate with you too, and that even though you may have 100 reasons to cry, you can also remember the 1,000 reasons to smile.

To each every one of you, thank you for the last decade!